Villanova had an emphatic answer Saturday in the first NCAA Final Four semifinal: No problem whatsoever. This was deep into one of the most flabbergasting games in Final Four history – Villanova 95, Oklahoma 51 – and one of Wright’s players, guard Phil Booth, flew toward the basket on a breakaway layup and appeared to be fouled.
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(AP Photo/David J. Phillip).
For the first time in weeks, Buddy Hield slept well Saturday night.
“We talked to our guys about that a lot”, Villanova coach Jay Wright said about shooting at Houston’s NRG Stadium. Attack, attack, attack. The Wildcats (34-5) sucked out any drama from what was expected to be a matchup between two evenly matched teams – each a No. 2 seed in its respective region – and they did it with such unrelenting efficiency that they themselves couldn’t be bothered to notice what they were doing and how well they were doing it. Josh Hart, Villanova’s leading scorer, made 10 of 12 shots and had 23 points. But the Wildcats avenged the December loss when it mattered most, winning by the largest margin of victory ever in the Final Four (Princeton previously held the record with a 36-point win over Wichita State in the 1965 third-place game). He scored 37 points in the Sooners’ win over No. 1 OR in the Elite Eight and he leads the NCAA in 3-pointers made, with 127.
Villanova dominated the Sooners (29-8) after an opening 7 minutes that had the teams trading the lead on nearly every possession.
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images Kris Jenkins (r.) scored 18 points on 4 of 7 shooting from three in Saturday’s win.
“I just turned my phone off, and I felt like I got rested last night”, Hield said. “‘We’re going to be good, ‘ we keep telling them, and I think they believed that”.
Ochefu is fully healthy and is expected to play a crucial role in the 9:19 p.m. tip off on TBS Monday, helping to equalize things against the tall and long North Carolina Tar Heels who rely on both speed and size to fuel their success. On the floor he was on fire hitting 10 of his 12 shot attempts. I thought their help defense was really good. “We’re not normally a 10 seed, and I think that we’ve proved that through this tournament”.
None other than the Wildcats, who shot an absurd 78.6% in the 1985 national championship game against No. 1 Georgetown. That was perhaps even more impressive than its 71.4% shooting from the field. He was held to nine points on 4-of-12 shooting, including 1-of-8 from three-point range. This is a very good basketball team that is playing like a machine right now, destroying good teams.
Despite its reputation as a title contender in previous years, Syracuse, with the up-and-down season it has had, is one of the most improbable Final Four teams in the tournament’s history. “I just figured that they pretty much had the game”.
Oklahoma senior guard Buddy Hield has won the James A. Naismith Trophy as the nation’s top college player.
The Orange couldn’t mount another serious threat as they hit just 8-of-26 from 3-point range. The Wildcats have been excellent at disrupting opponents before letting them even get into their offense.
“One of the things we tried to do was switch onto him not specifically for switching, but to get different people playing him because he wears you out”, he said. The Wildcats never led in that game. If anything, the Villanova smashing of Oklahoma got oddly intriguing just because of how big a beatdown it was.
Hart capped the half for Villanova with a 3-pointer with 8 seconds left that made it 42-28.
The Wildcats had as many assists (nine) as Oklahoma did turnovers. We got Villanova booting Oklahoma into the sun, followed by North Carolina earning a by-the-numbers win (83-66) over a Syracuse team that was a cool story, but not all that lovey-dovey.
“Needless to say we’re ecstatic”, Williams also said. We can put all the boring stuff away from the weekend and spend the next two days building up what could be one of the best title games in recent memory.
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“We were dialed in”. And there was also this brilliant canvas of a basketball game, as close to ideal as the sport allows, as dominant and as complete as a team can possibly play on both ends of the floor. Oklahoma’s Ryan Spangler scored to make it 54-41 with 12:56 remaining.
